"Defying Gravity" - Conductor Cam

[PattyO'Furniture]

Posted: 3/10/13 at 1:24pm

Check out this footage from WICKED in London. Idina Menzel is Elphaba; Helen Dallimore is Glinda.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IJ7qgrOyKQ8

Also, check out this rousing rendition of ending of "Defying Gravity."

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=slWH_gYpVqg

[Visceral_Fella]

Posted: 3/10/13 at 5:21pm

That conductor video is really cool! I always find the conductors who are really into it fascinating.

[PattyO'Furniture]

Posted: 3/11/13 at 11:38am

I am fascinated by how WICKED conductors (along with PHANTOM conductors) cope with all of that dry ice. It's neat to see it crawling off of the state into the pit.

[BrdwyThtr]

Posted: 3/11/13 at 11:40am

Interesting view. Idina sounds terrible.

[LYLS3637]

Posted: 3/11/13 at 11:52am

No she doesn't.

[ClapYo'Hands]

Posted: 3/11/13 at 12:43pm

Flat as hell.

[PattyO'Furniture]

Posted: 3/11/13 at 1:04pm

I know that people closely examine Idina's vocals, but I just have never, ever thought Helen sounded good in any WICKED audio I've ever heard. Consistent - yes. Good - no.

[OneDayMore1979]

Posted: 3/11/13 at 1:20pm

Oh if there was one thing Helen was, was consistent! Consistently BAD! What where they thinking?

[FireFingers]

Posted: 3/11/13 at 2:33pm

I like that the cam is obviously by the guitar's foldback for the conductor, so I can finally here the great guitar part that I knew was in there, but was barely audible in performance and on the recording. Thanks for posting.

[DEClarke]

Posted: 3/11/13 at 4:49pm

The conductor clearly loves his job. The audio is obviously recorded from within the pit so the different mixing is a really cool aspect of the video too!

[sbflyfan]

Posted: 3/11/13 at 4:59pm

Are the musicians' music stand lights going off at the end of the song an artistic choice?

i.e. Is the pit so visible to the audience that the lights going off would make a difference? Is that a decision the lighting designer and/or production team would make?

I'm just curious since I've never noticed that happen before at a show. Or perhaps I just don't pay attention to it enough.

[FireFingers]

Posted: 3/11/13 at 5:11pm

@sbflyfan

Defying Gravity ends with a black out, so the whole theatre goes dark. The audience wouldn't normally notice the pit lights (and video screens) but they would if they were the only lights in the auditorium, and would ruin the effect of the black out.

The lighting designer would ask for it, but could be suggested by any creative (director, set designer etc). Bit difficult to do, as the video feeds are normally sorted by the sound department (stupid tradition but that is the way it s), so requires cross department interfacing to do.

[PattyO'Furniture]

Posted: 3/11/13 at 7:24pm

sbflyfan, I never even noticed that, and thanks, FireFingers, for the info.